A/N : So appreciating the support I'm getting for this fic, it means a lot to me. I was worried about 'the circle' in the previous chapter, glad I pulled it off okay in the end.
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 4

"You feeling better now?" Donna asked Jackie as they sat on the Forman's front step. Both of them should be heading home, but the younger girl didn't seem particularly eager to leave, and her friend wouldn't leave her when she was upset, no matter how more annoying she became when she was sad.

"I guess" Jackie shrugged, coming down off her previous high, "I just worry so much about Steven"

"Honestly Jackie, he'll be fine" Donna assured her, "Hyde knows how to take care of himself, ever since we were little kids"

"Donna, it's not just that" she shook her head, "If I don't know where Steven is, how can I have any control over him?"

"Jackie, you didn't have control over him when he was here" Donna smiled and shook her head, "And besides, I thought you liked Hyde better than Kelso because he was a man who could think for himself"

"Well, sure" Jackie agreed, "but I only want him thinking for himself when I tell him to!" she complained, and Donna tried not to laugh as she put an arm around her friends shoulders and gave her a reassuring hug.

"Y'know, maybe Hyde's just not the guy for you after all" she said carefully, "Maybe you just don't need a guy at all right now. It is the seventies, Jackie, women can stand alone"

"No, no, no, no, no" Jackie said rapidly, shaking her head, "You can stand alone" she said pointing a finger at her friend, "Me, I need a man in my life. I need Steven Hyde, and he needs me. Why is nobody getting the picture!" she asked frustratedly as Donna suddenly had a thought.

"Picture!" she echoed, excitedly, "Jackie, why don't we head over to the Fotohut and ask Leo if he's seen Hyde?" she suggested, "There's a chance he could've gone there to get some cash or to tell Leo he wouldn't be going to work or something before he left"

"Oh my God, Donna, that's a great idea!" Jackie grinned as she hopped to her feet, "Let's go!"

"Hey Leo" Donna smiled as she and Jackie came into the Fotohut, "We were just wondering, have you seen Hyde?" she checked, as her friend bounced madly at her side, anticipating a positive response from Hyde's boss.

"Sure, man, I've seen Hyde" Leo nodded, "I see him every time he shows up for work" he smiled.

"Listen to me, you old hippy!" Jackie said in a shrill voice, getting up in Leo's face, "We need to know if you've seen Steven today, and we need to know now"

"Jackie, if your voice gets any higher, only dogs will hear you, man" the very young man she'd been looking for said as he appeared with his bag slung over his shoulder, his tinted glasses firmly on his face, despite the fact it was starting to get dark out.

"Hyde!" Donna looked surprised to see him, after all the whole gang had assumed he'd left town, it is what his note had said, "You're back"

"No" Hyde corrected her, "I didn't go anywhere yet, but now I am" he said, turning towards the door. He half-expected resistance from Donna, and hoped rather than anticipated the same from Jackie. A part of him so wished things had gone differently on their so-called date, and yet for the most part he told himself this was better, him getting out of Point Place and away from the annoying and abrasive little girl that would worm her way into his head and heart and confuse him like this.

As he glanced back behind himself at the Fotohut he found nobody was following him. They were all just letting him walk away, maybe to leave forever, even he wasn't sure how long he'd stay away. Jackie was letting him go, despite the fact it seemed she and Donna had come to find him. It seemed strange she'd be yelling at Leo, asking where he was, and yet now she was holding back and not coming after him, begging him to stay as he might've expected, after all she'd spent enough time these past weeks, following him around, determined to convince him they were in love.

Now she'd finally let him be, Hyde knew he ought to be glad and yet it hurt to think she'd let him go this easily, when he'd been within grasping distance. To Steven Hyde it only confirmed either Jackie's lack of genuine feeling for him, or her inconsistency of same. Determined now to press on to the bus station and get out of Point Place once and for all, Hyde kept walking, and didn't look back.

"Jackie, what the hell!" Donna raved as her friend stood rooted to the spot, arms folded over her chest as she stared at the door through which Hyde had just passed.

"He wants to leave, Donna" she shrugged, "That's cool"

"That's cool!" the re-head echoed, sounding almost apoplectic, "How can you stand there and say that, you were going crazy not knowing where Hyde was!" she reminded her.

"And now I know where he is" she said, almost as if it were obvious why she was no longer upset, "He's fine, and that's cool"

"Will you stop saying that everything is cool!" Donna protested.

"Whatever" Jackie sighed checking her nails as Leo watched the two of them bicker, unable to keep up. A look passed over Donna's face as she relayed what was going on.

"Jackie, this is not the right time for your Zen lessons to come back to you" she told her friend, grabbing her by the shoulders, "If you love Hyde like you say you do, don't let him just leave"

"I'm not his keeper, Donna" the brunette said, shrugging her hands away, "If Steven wants to go, he can. That's..."
"Cool?" Donna guessed, looking unimpressed, "Yeah, I heard" she shook her head as she let herself out of the door and hurried down the street towards the bus station, after all it seemed likely that was where Hyde was headed.

"Thanks, Mom, that was great" Eric grinned as he wiped his mouth with a paper napkin, having just finished off a large meal.

"Yes, thank you, Mrs Forman" Fez smiled similarly from across the table, "I was very, very hungry" he said with a look that Eric didn't appreciate. If his parents ever found out why they were so hungry they'd go crazy. It'd been bad enough before when Hyde had got busted for possession. Thankfully he and Eric had managed to talk their way out of that one but there was no way that'd work twice.

"Well, you're welcome, Fez" Kitty smiled at him as she took the dishes over to the sink, "It's nice to have Eric's friends around the table, it makes us feel like much more of a family" she said, her smile wavering, "That's why it was so nice when Steven was... it was so nice, and..." her words disappeared as she came emotional and Eric quickly got up from his seat, coming over to comfort his mother.

"It's okay, Mom" he told her, "Y'know Hyde's pretty tough. He'll be fine, wherever he is"

"I know, honey" Kitty sighed, "I just, I worry about all you kids. The world isn't as friendly as it used to be and when I think about what could happen to that boy. He's already been through so much"

"Mrs Forman" Fez said as he came over to her, "We have a saying in my country, it goes 'sometimes boy's do stupid things'" he recited, causing both Eric and Kitty to look at him strangely, "What? It is true!" the boy complained, "And in my country it rhymes" he said smartly.

Kitty let out her trademark laugh at that ridiculous sentence. Eric didn't know what to say, but he was glad to see his Mom smiling again for a little while at least. In all honesty, he could hit Hyde for upsetting his mother like this, though he doubted he'd ever do it, for fear of being flattened by his friend for daring to take a swing at him.

"You're an idiot!" were the words with which Donna greeted Hyde when she caught up with him at the bus station.

"Haven't been called that before" he said sarcastically, looking up from his seat and peering over his tinted glasses as her.

"Actually, you're worse than an idiot" the redhead corrected herself, "You're being an ass, Hyde!"

"Whatever you say, doll" he said, glancing away as he waited for the next bus out to arrive.

"No, I am not going to take this stupid Zen crap from you too" Donna told him as she sat down beside him, "If I hear one more 'That's cool' or 'Whatever'" she said mimiking the dumb tone she'd heard too much today already, "I swear to God I'm going to take you and Jackie, lock you in a room together and make you stay there til you figure this out!"

"Look, Donna" Hyde sighed as he turned to look at her once again, "I don't know what Jackie told you but me and her have nothing left to figure out, man" he told her.

"Are you kidding!" she scoffed, "One minute you're so cool and calm about Jackie, telling her she makes you want to vomit whilst she jumps up and down like a hyper-active bug trying to get your attention" she recapped, "Next thing you're on a date together, and I think maybe, finally, you two will figure things out, but no" she said, waving her arms emphatically, "Instead of being grown ups and being honest with each other, you both lie about your feelings. You run away, she goes crazy and then when she actually finds you she pretends she doesn't care you were ever gone! God, you're worse than little kids!"

"Yeah, well, she started it" was Hyde's decidedly immature argument, that only added fuel to Donna's fire, "I never asked her to start hanging around me the way she did, man, I wanted an easy life"

"Newsflash, Hyde" Donna sighed, "Nobody's life is easy, and you're not making anybody's life easier by running away"

"Yeah, Donna, I am" he argued, "That's exactly what I'm doing. I'm simpling things up real nice for myself, for Jackie, for everybody"

"Explain to me how" his friend asked, quite intrigued. She never understood how people running away from problems helped to solve them, it seemed stupid to her.

"Okay, here's how" Hyde said, preparing his words carefully, "One minute, Jackie thinks she loves me, next minute she's telling me the kiss we shared meant nothing. She's obviously totally confused, man, and it's not helping having her confusing me too. That's going to lead to no good for anybody"

"Okay" Donna stretched out the word, "So, now we're back to the you being an idiot part" she told him, "Seriously, Hyde, are you so naive you don't get it?" she asked him.

"Naive? Me?" he checked, giving her a look, "Donna, you're dating Eric, you're friends with Kelso, Jackie, and Fez, and you think I'm the most naive person you know?" he smirked.

"You're more stupid than Kelso if you don't see that your leaving is not going to fix this" she said seriously, "I mean it, Hyde, you're just going to end up hurting yourself and Jackie, plus Mrs Forman who is going nuts over you leaving, as well as the gang"

"I didn't want to upset Mrs Forman" he said, looking almost guilty, "But man, how can this ever work out?"

"It could, if you were just serious and honest about how you feel about Jackie" she said simply, as he looked away.

"I don't like her, I tried to tell her, she wouldn't believe me, so we had our little date, but now it's over" he said firmly, getting up from his seat and moving to get a better view down the street, hoping the bus would hurry up and arrive so he could get out of here. Donna was getting too close to making him admit things he'd rather not, and she was just about the only person who could make him do it too.

"It's not over" she said following him, and putting her hand on his shoulder, "Hyde, I know you, better than pretty much anybody" she reminded him, "I know when you're trying to cover up your feelings, no matter how good you think you are at doing it"

"Whatever, man" he shrugged her off, but she as determined to make him listen.

"Like when your Mom left and you pretended not to care? And your Dad before that?" she recalled, "All those times when I knew you'd been crying, even though you came off all tough and 'Zen' about it all" she said, as he looked at her with a shocked expression, confirming every word she said was true, "I know you feel something more for Jackie than you're telling her" she said simply.

"So?" Hyde asked her, "What does it matter? It's all going to end in tears, Donna, it always does with me" he said bitterly as the bus appeared at last. The red-head thought frantically for something she could say to make her friend stay and not board the bus that was now parked right beside them.

"What? No last ditch attempt at making me stay?" Hyde asked her with a look, putting one foot on the vehicle and looking back at his friend.

"What can I say?" she shrugged, hugging herself and shaking her head, "You made your decision" she said as she turned and walked away, "I guess I just never believed all those people who thought you'd turn out like your Dad"

To Be Continued...